I got sad tonight because a friend announced she's pregnant and it makes me wonder if I'll get to improvise with her anymore. I don't know a lot of professional female improvisors who are moms. Courtney! You and Susan Messing are the ones that come to mind.

Are there lots of moms? Or does everyone quit improv and take care of their kidlet?

My wife used to improvise back with a few troupes in the early 2000's ... I have begged her to get back into it , but she is too mommy now.... She was great at short form and I bet she would kill in a Maestro, but she won't play...

i'm a mom to a 2.5 yr old, and it def slows you down, especially when they are <1. but - as our nugget has gotten older - i've been able to get back into performing with more frequency. since my husband bob improvises too, we often switch off when we are in the same show, and are fortunate to have my mom nearby (and some awesome babysitters we can call on) to cover shows we both need to show for. we just can't do our 2 person show more than a few times a year, unfortunately .

in addition to me and the ladies michael mentioned, there are a couple of moms at coldtowne (kristin henn, vicki sokol-evans, julia kirchen) all with varying levels of involvement.

so, when and if she comes back is really up to her and her support system, but there's no reason to think you won't be able to play with her ever again.

"I suspect what we're doing is performance art, but I'm not going to tell the public that." -- Del Close

My next amazing business venture will be to spread the gospel about replicating my awesome Kid Rodeo.

Kid Rodeo is the babysitting co-op we've had since Walter was a baby. There are four families, with a kid each. We rotate every weekend so that someone watches all the kids. So you have built-in babysitting three nights every month in exchange for one night of riding herd over the young 'uns. As the kids got older, rodeo hours got longer. For the past 6 years, the kids have done overnights, staying from 6 pm to 10 am the next morning.

The kids are 9 yrs old now and we're pretty sure the rodeo will continue into their teens (we've never actually told them they have a choice )
The triple bonus of the Rodeo is that we know each other so well, we're like an extended family and there are lots more side deals for swapping kid care.

It could totally work in a community of improvisors, where parents swap childcare when they have shows...

AmyA wrote:We also talked about doing a All-Moms Maestro show, complete with childcare on the catwalk....

That's more or less how the Flying Theater Machine started, if I recall, Jessica and Sean and I talking about doing some kind of parents' troupe (with the same kind of kid-wrangling arrangement) before a show a few years back. Right?

(There are a bunch of improv dads who struggle to get the kiddo/improv timeslicing right, as well...)